After the Portland Trail Blazers agreed to a deal to send Damian Lillard to the Milwaukee Bucks — and not his reported preferred destination of the Miami Heat — it was only a matter of time before The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugtoz weighed in.
After all, the Miami-based show hasn’t just covered the story, but at times, has been a part of it, with Le Batard even becoming a literal mouthpiece for the Heat.
Meadowlark Media’s flagship program didn’t disappoint, with Le Batard and his crew — sans Stugtoz — gathering for an impromptu live stream shortly after news of the blockbuster trade was first reported. And while there was plenty of disappointment to be found in “the shipping container,” Le Batard also provided commentary on what Lillard not getting his way means from a big picture perspective.
“More interesting to me is after, what is it, a decade or 12 years of total player empowerment? Damian Lillard is the crossroads on, ‘No, we will not respect your power and your leverage and your relationship with our city,” Le Batard said. “You want to leave? OK. You don’t get to choose where it is you go. You want to go to Miami? We’re going to send you to something close to the opposite of Miami.'”
“We’ve been saying for years, why do you always have to do what [James] Harden wants? He has a contract, he doesn’t have a no-trade clause. You’ve gotta call the player’s bluff. And Lillard wasn’t able to get dirty in public on behalf of wanting to get here. He didn’t want to ruin the fanbase loyalty that he has with Portland.”
“And so now he gets the power taken away from him and sent to a place he doesn’t want to go. To me, that’s the most interesting part of all of this is the place that it stops on player empowerment is Damian Lillard. You’re too old and you have too much money left on your contract. You can’t have this power.”
For what it’s worth, despite his reported insistence of only wanting to go to Miami, Lillard appears to approve of the trade and all indications are that he will, in fact, report to Milwaukee. He’s also not necessarily the first star player to not get traded to his preferred destination; current Heat star Jimmy Butler reportedly wanted to be traded to the Nets, Knicks or Clippers before being sent to the 76ers by the Timberwolves in 2018. And even just last year, the 76ers refused to play ball with Ben Simmons’ trade request until Harden became available.
To Le Batard’s larger point, it’s undeniable that Portland — and to a lesser degree, Milwaukee — called Lillard’s bluff after he reportedly insisted he would only play for the Heat. Moving forward, it will be interesting to see if this proves to be a matter of specific circumstances resulting in an outlier, or, as Le Batard believes, a breaking point in the player empowerment era.
[The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz]
